During ACC.18, LUMEDX will be at Booth 3007 in the Interventional Pavilion, showcasing our cutting-edge software and services designed to help hospitals improve care and reduce costs across the cardiovascular service line. Schedule a meeting here to learn all about the latest CV data management tools and our new analytics-driven Cardiovascular Performance Program.

ACC.18 is March 10-12 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Expo hours are 9:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 10-11, and 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday, March 12. The conference features content in 11 learning pathways, each narrowing in on a different clinical specialty of cardiovascular disease, including Interventional Cardiology, Congenital Heart Disease, Prevention and more.

An estimated 13,000 healthcare professionals will attend the event that is packed full of networking opportunities and chances to discuss and debate the latest science and information with the world’s top experts. For more information about ACC.18, click here.

If you are attending NCDR.18, be sure to stop by the LUMEDX table to see how the No. 1 independent provider of ACC-NCDR® registry software can help your hospital go beyond data collection with innovative ways to drive quality and contain costs.

NCDR.18 will be held March 7-9 at the Caribe Royale Orlando and is expecting a turnout of 1,700 registry professionals, quality improvement professionals, physicians and administrators. Exhibit hours are 5:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, 6:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday, March 8, and 7 a.m.-2:45 p.m. Friday, March 9. For a complete agenda, click here.

LUMEDX showcases data intelligence tools at HIMSS18

LUMEDX will be demonstrating its powerful analytics and data management tools at the HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, where more than 45,000 healthcare professionals from more than 90 countries will gather for the premier health information and technology conference.

Scheduled for March 5-9 at the Venetian-Palazzo-Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, HIMSS18 is a one-stop shop for the education, innovation and collaboration professionals need to continue the transformation of healthcare through IT.

Come by Booth 12340, Level 1, Hall G, to learn how LUMEDX’s data intelligence solutions can help achieve better performance while reducing costs. Click here to schedule a demonstration of how meaningful analytics can monitor, measure and improve all aspects of cardiovascular services.

Throughout the conference, HIMSS18 will include a full slate of networking opportunities, five keynote addresses, government sessions, specialty education tracks and more. Data Analytics/Clinical and Business Intelligence is one of 23 in-depth topics that will be explored in the 300-plus educational sessions being offered.

Other subject matters to be tackled include:

Improving Quality Outcomes Through Health IT

Health Information Exchange, Interoperability and Data Integration

Privacy, Security and Cybersecurity

Emerging Payment Models for Value-Based Care

Process Improvement, Workflow, Change Management

For more information about educational sessions, keynote speakers or registration, please visit www.himssconference.org.

Value-based care is here to stay, will get boost from analytics, study says

Despite 2017’s cancellation of mandatory bundled payments, the value-based care movement in the United States is still healthy and will benefit in 2018 from analytics, according to a report from Washington, D.C.-based healthcare consulting firm Avalere.

In “2018 Healthcare Industry Outlook,” Avalere says new ways to collect data and advanced analytic capabilities are revitalizing efforts to turn data into insights that can inform policy and improve clinical workflows. This supports the shift to value-based care, which has continued even as the Trump administration backs away from large-scale mandatory models.

In November, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) canceled a plan for mandatory hip fracture and cardiac bundled payments that was slated to go into effect Jan. 1, sparking some concern that the action signaled a move away from value-based care. But then on Jan. 9, the CMS launched a new, voluntary bundled payment model that will be considered an alternative payment model (APM) for purposes of Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) reporting.

This, along with evidence from Avalere that the private sector has not reversed course, tells us that interest in strategies to move away from the traditional fee-for-service payment model has not waned.

“Despite political transitions and revisions to Medicare bundled payment programs, the U.S. healthcare system’s transition to APMs has remained steady,” the report says. In 2017, some of the largest commercial plans were running nearly 50 percent of their medical spend through APMs and aim to go higher, according to Avalere.

Because value-based care rewards healthcare providers who prioritize better outcomes for their patients, leaders are turning to technology investments that can lower costs and improve care quality. Avalere says that data reliability and accessibility, including capturing information and creating algorithms, will drive outcomes-based contracting and a transition toward APMs.

“Success in APMs will require providers to create better infrastructure for proactive care management, data analytics, and timely integration of disparate data,” the report says. “More widespread availability of real-world data will enable new entities to leverage analytics and insight to benefit patients and their providers.”

An outcomes-driven environment requires fast and easy access to clinical and financial intelligence that can shine a light on the best possible course forward. To learn how LUMEDX data analytics can help your organization in the transition to value-based care by becoming more efficient and improving patient satisfaction, get information about the Cardiovascular Performance Program or email us at info@lumedx.com.

Health execs hopeful about big data and analytics, new study says

​Hospital executives are optimistic that big data and analytics will achieve broader adoption in healthcare over the next two years, helping organizations maximize their return on IT investments, according to a new study by SAP and Oxford Economics.

Technology is dramatically affecting the healthcare industry and delivering new value, says the study, “Digital Transformation in Healthcare: A Positive Prognosis,” which surveyed nearly 400 hospital executives. Growth, competitive advantage and customer experience depend on the latest technologies, according to 70 percent of respondents.

Asked about specific technologies likely to achieve broader adoption over the next two years, 76 percent of healthcare leaders predicted big data and analytics, 65 percent cited cloud computing, 46 percent named the Internet of Things (IoT) and 28 percent said artificial intelligence (AI).

What might all this mean for cardiac and vascular departments? At LUMEDX, we have seen the shift to value-based payment models and the increasing importance of patient experience result in a greater reliance on data among our customer base—and a greater need for more sophisticated data analytics.

As tools and technologies evolve, we think cardiovascular service lines can be at the forefront of the digital transformation in healthcare. Performance analytics, highly efficient cardiovascular workflows, and optimal integration of clinical and operational data help our clients improve outcomes, radically reduce costs and increase revenue contribution to the hospital. To learn more, read about LUMEDX’s Cardiovascular Performance Program.

​Come see LUMEDX at the upcoming 103rd Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago and get the most up-to-date information about our cardiovascular service line and data intelligence tools.

RSNA 2017 will be held Nov. 26-Dec. 1 at the McCormick Convention Center. LUMEDX will be at Booth 6235, North—Hall B. The exhibition hall will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 26-29 and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 30. About 25,000 attendees and 500 technical exhibitors are expected to attend the conference.

Learn more about our cardiovascular data intelligence offerings, which includes innovative software and services to help streamline care delivery, improve outcomes and dramatically reduce costs. Demos of LUMEDX’s powerful PACS and data management tools will also be available.

Full-scale adoption of AI still a long way away, new study says

While the use of clinical and business intelligence tools is on the rise in healthcare, the hype surrounding artificial intelligence is unlikely to lead to full-scale adoption for quite some time, according to a new study by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

In the HIMSS 2017 Essentials Brief: Clinical and Business Intelligence, 23.5 percent of respondents said they expect their organizations to begin using AI within two years, 24.7 percent said within the next three to five years and 8.2 percent said six to 10 years. Only 4.7 percent said their organizations were already using AI and just 10.6 percent said they expect their organizations to begin leveraging AI within the next 12 months.

The prevailing belief seems to be that the technology just isn’t ready yet. Some 37 percent of respondents said further AI development is needed, 23.5 percent said the business case for AI was still unproven and 19.8 percent cited infrastructure constraints within their organizations. When questioned about barriers in the industry overall, 50 percent of respondents said they believe the technology is still in development and current opportunities to apply it to healthcare are difficult to understand.

Here are some of the other findings:

Clinical and Business Intelligence solution adoption rates for the U.S. healthcare market in 2017 are 48 percent and 62 percent, respectively.

Data governance, an important pre-requisite for the success of data analytics, has shown significant improvement in the “highly optimized” and “strong” categories from study respondents who were asked to qualify their efforts in this area.

While leveraging clinical analytics to meet Meaningful Use (MU) requirements and reporting remains the primary area of focus (nearly 70 percent of respondents), there has been an increase in the focus on population health year over year from roughly 20 percent in 2016 to 30 percent in 2017.

Clinical and financial business intelligence solutions have become essential to healthcare organizations in the move from volume to value-based care and in the development of new models of care. LUMEDX offers comprehensive, integrated cardiovascular data intelligence and imaging solutions—all with seamless connectivity to your enterprise systems (EHR/HIS).

More than half of healthcare executives polled in The Predictive Analytics in Healthcare Trend Forecast by the Society of Actuaries expect the use of predictive analytics to shave a significant amount off their organization’s budget. Fifty-seven percent of study respondents believe predictive analytics will save 15 percent over the next five years, with 26 percent expecting savings of more than 25 percent over the same period.

Despite hurdles such as cost, 93 percent of those polled believe analytics are important for the future of their business. The study, which polled 223 provider and payer executives, found that while just 47 percent currently deploy predictive analytics, 88 percent plan to either launch or expand current initiatives in the next five years.

“This data underscores the value executives place on predictive analytics across both payer and provider organizations,” says Ian Duncan, a fellow at the University of California at Santa Barbara and one of the study’s authors. “As value-based care gains prominence, smart organizations are leveraging predictive analytics to forecast health and clinical outcomes to help achieve the Triple Aim.”

In the below video, LUMEDX Vice President of Strategic Products Praveen Lobo notes that even near-real time data analysis represents a major step forward on the path to healthcare’s Triple Aim. Watch the video to learn how analytics enables improved decision-making for physicians as well as CV leadership.

Praveen Lobo, Vice President of Strategic Projects, talks about how analytics can help cut costs while improving your hospital's outcomes and patient satisfaction.

The leader in cardiovascular data intelligence and a pioneer in cloud-powered healthcare solutions, LUMEDX offers an all-inclusive suite of software and services that enables meaningful analytics, high-performance workflows, optimal integration of clinical and HIS data, and better continuity of care.

3 ways to get buy-in for predictive analytics tools

Getting service line leaders and physicians to use predictive analytics is sometimes more difficult than you’d think, even though the National Academy of Medicine says one-third of the U.S. healthcare system’s resources—$750 billion each year—is spent on unnecessary services and inefficient care. So what’s standing in the way of getting buy-in when it comes to the kind of tools specifically designed to reduce wasteful spending?

Meetali Kakad, Ronen Rozenblum and David Westfall Bates, writing for the Harvard Business Review, interviewed 34 key figures from leading U.S. health systems, policy makers and predictive analytics vendors to find out how to get more buy-in. Here are some of the lessons learned:

1.Engage everyone. “Success depends less on the tool itself than on getting buy-in at all levels from the start,” they wrote. This includes making sure frontline employees fully understand the value of these analytics, as well as ensuring your CEOs and top leadership are educated and fully grasp the value proposition to generate support.

2.Communicate the value. “Demonstrating the clinical impact of a predictive tool can go a long way toward engaging those who will use them,” the authors say. Giving real examples that are results-oriented is especially helpful for clinical staff who may be skeptical of “black box algorithms.”

3.Bring in the experts. The use of implementation experts to help everyone adjust gives you a marked advantage, according to the authors’ findings. These experts can work with clinicians to map workflows and spot potential challenges when introducing a new process or tool.

LUMEDX, the leader in cardiovascular data intelligence and a pioneer in cloud-powered healthcare solutions, offers a comprehensive suite of software and services that enable meaningful analytics, high-performance workflows, optimal integration of clinical and HIS data, and improved continuity of care.

Eleven of the world’s most prosperous nations—Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, plus the United States—are included in the most recent report from the Commonwealth Fund. The United States is last in efficiency; the U.S. spent $9,364 per person on healthcare in 2016, compared to $4,094 in the U.K., which ranked first on performance overall.

Praveen Lobo, LUMEDX Vice President of Strategic Products, talks about the importance of
near real-time data analytics.

With physicians and service line leaders alike working on the front lines to improve this, having near real-time data analytics available at your fingertips is paramount, says Praveen Lobo, vice president of strategic products at LUMEDX.

“When you want to improve your core parameters that you’re playing with—your outcomes and your costs—the sooner you know information about these two key metrics, the better you can affect change,” Lobo says.

Waiting for monthly or quarterly reports just isn’t an option anymore. “Retroactive data is delayed,” he says, adding that by the time reports come out so much has happened and “there’s already a lot of money that has bled by that time.”

Why clinical insights eclipse raw data

Healthcare providers are realizing that massive amounts of data don't do anyone any good unless this data is distilled into relevant information that improves quality of care and helps contain or reduce costs.

In fact, companies that just sell information won't last long unless they turn that raw data into analytics and clinical insights, according to an article written by three managing directors of L.E.K. Consulting and published in the Harvard Business Review.

One option is to become the authoritative source for a particular kind of information, the article says, but a better solution is to evolve from providing data to deriving insight -- transforming information to support better decisions.

"In healthcare, providers don't want data, they want solutions that lower costs and improve outcomes," the authors wrote. "(Healthcare IT) firms that deliver those solutions are the ones that will be around in five years' time."

LUMEDX, the leader in cardiovascular data intelligence and a pioneer in cloud-powered healthcare solutions, offers a comprehensive suite of technology and services that enable meaningful analytics, streamlined CV workflows, and optimal integration of clinical and EHR data. The data our systems collect and transmit can be leveraged into real-time performance insights, enabling better healthcare, reduced costs, and the best measure of good data: positive outcomes.